Think of all the controversies we’ve had over dubious “ingredients” in food over the past few years. There was pink slime in our McNuggets, yoga mat (or azodicarbonamide) in our Subway bread, beaver butt (i.e. castoreum) in our ice cream. Then there’s the ongoing debate over listing GMOs on the label. Skeptics rightly regard Monsanto as unlikely to act responsibly and scientifically literate people rightly point out that “GMO” is not an ingredient, and they mostly fight to a draw.

Anyway, we have a more cut-and-dry case now that the FDA has ruled against putting “love” on the label. According to Bloomberg, last week, Massachusetts’ Nashoba Bakery got a strongly worded letter from the agency prohibiting the basic human emotion from appearing as an ingredient:

Your Nashoba Granola label lists ingredient ‘Love.’ Ingredients required to be declared on the label or labeling of food must be listed by their common or usual name. ‘Love’ is not a common or usual name of an ingredient, and is considered to be intervening material because it is not part of the common or usual name of the ingredient.

So, the same federal government that proposed striking down two regulations for every one it implements and which also wants to make the water supply less drinkable has taken a brave stand against harmless hippie-dippie nonsense. Xanthan gum is OK as a binding agent, but the ties that bind are verboten. Next, “Enjoy!” will no longer be permitted as the final step of a food-preparation process.